Radiant Capital exploit accounts for half of October’s six-month low $116M crypto crime

October marked a significant decline in crypto-related losses due to exploits, with total losses amounting to approximately $116 million—the lowest monthly losses in the last six months.

Most of October’s losses stemmed from exploits, followed by flash loan attacks and exit scams. Exploits accounted for the bulk, totaling $113.3 million, while flash loan and exit scams contributed $1.5 million and $1.2 million, respectively.

According to blockchain security firm CertiK, around $245,000 of these funds was successfully returned to victims, bringing the net impact down to approximately $115.8 million.

Radiant Capital dominates losses

One of the month’s most significant incidents occurred on Oct. 16, when Radiant Capital, a Multichain money market, faced a $50 million exploit due to a hardware wallet compromise. This event caused a 7% drop in its RDNT token value.

According to CertiK, the exploit’s impact reached $54 million, accounting for nearly half of the total losses in October. Radiant Capital reported ongoing collaboration with US law enforcement and Web3 security teams to recover the stolen funds.

Following this, a phishing attack targeted a crypto whale, losing approximately $36 million in 15,079 fwDETH tokens. This incident led to a depeg of the DETH token, designed to mirror Ethereum’s value.

Other notable October exploits included a $5.3 million attack on EigenLayer and a $4.7 million exploit on Tapioca DAO.

In addition, flash loan attacks cost the crypto sector roughly $1.5 million. A single attack on an unnamed project accounted for $996,000 of this loss.

Exit scams also remained an issue, with Void and Undead responsible for $487,000 and $429,000 in losses, respectively, making them the largest exit scams of the month.

This downtrend in exploit-related losses suggests increasing resilience within the crypto sector, yet the threat of hacks and scams persists, reminding investors to stay vigilant.

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